<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>When confidence fights the past by ThM</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22877731">When confidence fights the past</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThM/pseuds/ThM'>ThM</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>When life starts [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bendy and the Ink Machine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - 2D Bendy (Bendy and the Ink Machine), Family, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Tagging, Ink Henry AU, June is alive I promise, Shadows of the Studio, Tagging to be on the safe side, The cats are their I'm just to lazy to actually say something about it plus writers block</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 09:06:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,269</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22877731</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThM/pseuds/ThM</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben figures that a way to heal is to express, and so to help someone heal he tells somethings from his past</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>When life starts [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643314</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>When confidence fights the past</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZanzaFlux/gifts">ZanzaFlux</a>.</li>


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/18841015">Back to Where It All Began</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZanzaFlux/pseuds/ZanzaFlux">ZanzaFlux</a>.
        </li>

    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Beeeeeeeenn… Beeeeen… Ben, c’mon Ben wake up! Jonah and Jones are already here, and Jason is working on Lucy. We wanna go outside, we asked Jones if he could do it, but he refused. C’mon Ben we want to go outside!” <strong>who was this? How did they know my name? Do I know their names?</strong></p><p><strong>I… I think I do, I’m pretty sure their names are S-Sarah, B-Beth, Bendy, J-Jonah, Jason, J-Jones. But how can I tell if I haven’t seen them? Maybe just maybe I should open my eyes, just one</strong>.</p><p>
  <strong>Yup, I knew it, is it morning? None the less, I think the girls and Bendy are playing on my hand. Why do I have a feeling someone’s staring at me? I don’t like this feeling, maybe I should open my other eye, that should help me find who it is, staring at me</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Huh, looks like Jones and Jonah were staring, why were they staring? Oh wait, my hand is shapeshifted isn’t it? Yup, it is, I’m most likely still in my Pj’s. Yup to that too, welp, might as well get up</strong>
</p><p>Ben slowly grunted as he acted dead, surprising everyone by tickling the three while they were on his oversized hand, he chuckled as he slowly rolled over his hands, letting the three roll off like logs going down a mountain, they laughed</p><p>“Finally, sleepy bones, you’re up! Now get up so that we can play outside” Beth announced, everyone nodded in agreement</p><p>“<strong>Doooo iiii hhhaaaavvvveeee tooooooo?</strong>” Ben asked, knowing he would get a slightly angry response from Beth, and boy was he right about that one</p><p>“Duh, of course, you have to! I mean are you going to let us go out and get napped?” Beth said, Ben chuckled as he raised his oversized hand and patted Beth and her head, she simply crossed her arms and grunted</p><p>“C’mon Ben, whaddya waiting for? Get up and go get breakfast lanky!” Bendy said, Ben raised his oversized hand once more and tousled Bendy’s head vigorously, leaving the toon in the same position as Beth, cross-armed and grunts</p><p>“Please Ben, we want to play outside, can you please get up?” Sarah asked, Ben motioned his hands in a way of telling Sarah to get closer, she did. He leaned to the side of the bed and kissed her cheek, she tried her best to hide the blush that slowly appeared on her cheek</p><p>Ben chuckled, he shapeshifted his hand back to normal and sighed as he threw the quilt over him. Nothing happened at first, but then the small figure transformed into a tall skinny figure</p><p>A couple of seconds later he threw the quilt back over, revealing his normal figure, he slowly moved his legs to the side of the bed as he rubbed his eyes with his hands,</p><p>“<strong>What, never seen a toon walk offstage and change outfits?</strong>” Ben asked, Bendy chuckled, he knew what Ben meant</p><p>“So, can you get up now?” Beth asked in a slightly sassy tone, Ben picked her up and spun her around, putting her back down dizzy</p><p>Bendy, Jonah, and Sarah laughed as Beth walked dizzily, Ben had to catch her a couple of times, preventing her from falling and bruising herself</p><p>When Beth regained her balance, Ben left the room heading into the kitchen to get breakfast, he found that Jone was in the living room, he looked sad, to say the least. Ben walked into the kitchen to find out he missed breakfast</p><p>“Well, look who’s finally up!” Henry said. Jason followed</p><p>“Cut him some slack bro, I was tossing and turning all night, I must have woken him at least once,” Jason said, Ben nodded as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand</p><p>“Alright, but you’re making him breakfast, I mean you did wake him up,” Henry said, Jason grunted as he warmed up some bacon and eggs</p><p>“Hey Ben,” Jason said. Ben hummed “Someone’s waiting for you in the living room, I’ll give you a holler when your food is ready,” Jason said, this must have been Jone, that would explain why he was there in the first place</p><p>Ben headed towards the living room to find Jone sitting there, looking sad, he jumped when he saw Ben’s feet</p><p>“H-Hi Ben” Jone said</p><p>“<strong>Hi,</strong>” Ben said, he sat down next to Jone, they sat there in silence, for Jone this was uncomfortable but for Ben, relaxing, he could think clearer and easier. Yes, he loved to separate the children and being sympathetic but sometimes he needs some time to think. Jone broke the ice</p><p>“S-So I was thinking about the l-last time we saw each other a-and how you did that ‘trick’” Jone said, Ben nodded “when you walked away you acted like nothing had happened like you just got up put on your cap and walked. But it wasn’t that shook me, it’s the fact that no one was scared of you, I mean at some point in time I can tell that you didn’t have revealed purple eyes and a soft smile, no, you had that face, the one with the grin and the eyes covered,” Jone said, Ben again nodded</p><p>“and I can tell that everyone here has seen that face before whether they wanted too or not, but what bothers me, even more, is that their fine with it. I mean yes you do have purple eyes and a soft smile but how?” Jone asked</p><p>Was Jone asking how to change or was he lying again?</p><p>“<strong>I’ll tell you only on one condition,</strong>” Ben said, Jone looked up at Ben “<strong>You need to tell me the truth, do you want to know or no?</strong>” Ben asked, he didn’t say it but if the kids smart enough, he’ll figure it out, does he or does he not want change?</p><p>“I would like to know,” Jone said, Ben nodded</p><p>“<strong>Okay, a very brief backstory to get some understanding of how. I was summoned in a ritual and never met my proper creator, I had this man who I will not disclose the name of, who treated me like I was a pill of garbage thrown into a human meat sack inside a faulty spring lock suit that would kill you if you did anything. He pulled the wall over many people, only eight of those men stepped over, one of them being Henry the co-owner of the studio</strong>” Ben said. Jone interrupted</p><p>“Do you mean the Henry in the kitchen?” Jone asked, Ben simply nodded, continuing</p><p>“<strong>I wasn’t alive when it happened, but I was alive when something with Henry went down, the first time I heard my ‘creator’ talking to a Henry over the phone, the second time, well… I-I was fed up with everything and I pulled the wrong move, I jumped at him, unknowing of how to approach the man. He ran, and that made me snap, I’m not going to continue but I think you can imagine what happened</strong>” Ben said, Jone nodding</p><p>“<strong>Anyway, jumping to after that time, the man’s wife came along and, well… summoned me again, I was put under a spell, I did whatever she wanted or else something painful and electric would shock my neck. Now what she did is she captured Henry and made him do something for her revenge. Because Henry saved Bendy, he made a bond with him, and that bond grants Henry powers, the wife used that against him,</strong>” Ben said taking a quick break, Jone looking absorbed in what’s happening</p><p>“<strong>And she planned to force his body to transform and hunt down June, the spell would only break when she was dead, but luckily for him, Bendy managed to get to him before he gave her the final blow, wait, I skipped something.</strong>” Ben started over</p><p>“<strong>June was given the chance to run, but no matter how much she hid, he would always find her, now I snapped out at the woman, she zapped me, I fled to rest. While resting, June was running, and she came across me, on the floor, breathing heavily. I didn’t do anything to her, as I know what she was up against, but she did something no one had ever done, she voluntarily got close to me and took off the collar that was used to electrocute me. I stayed their processing the act she had done, I was blown away but I didn’t act it, well at least not immediately, she ran into a group of bad guys so to speak, and she couldn’t do anything to defend herself, I stepped in</strong>” Ben again took a breath, Jone still engrossed in the story</p><p>“<strong>I roamed those halls for 30 years, I grew habits, I learned things, and I did things I didn’t want to do, one of those things was what I call veins. Let me show you what I mean</strong>” Ben stood up, Jone watching carefully, soon he felt something at his feet, it was an inky vein that spread across the floor, Jone now understood what he meant as veins</p><p>“<strong>I always used these veins to tell anyone near to move out the way or I’d hurt ‘em, I ended up hurting a lot of people, not because they were too slow, but because I had to get out the anger that my creator gave me. When I saw June in that corner stuck I had to do something in return, the only nice thing that I received was from her and I wasn’t letting her pass that easily, the people attacking her fell to the floor, I approached her and said a thank you</strong>” Ben said, saying Jone was engrossed would be an absolute understatement</p><p>“<strong>After Henry snapping out of it, the woman finds out that their alive and heading for the exit, and sends a huge monster and takes Beth and Sarah, the three that protected Beth and Sarah were knocked down except one, who got away as fast as possible with the two, they didn’t make it too far until the monster caught them. I couldn’t do anything, I was still recovering, they had a fight and they won, the woman was furious, she still didn’t know something, you want to guess what that is?</strong>” Ben asked</p><p>“That June took off your collar?” Jone said</p><p>“<strong>Exactly. When I entered, I was there to hurt her and was willing to go the extra mile because what she did to June, she ordered me to do things that I didn’t do, she tried the collar, it didn’t work, I started laughing when she realized that the collar was gone, June was the only other one that was laughing, let alone opening a mouth. Then she said the most perfect sentence that made everyone’s jaw’s drop, she said-</strong>“ Before Ben could finish Jason called him over</p><p>“Breakfast is ready,” Jason said, Ben walked to the kitchen, leaving Jone feeling like he was a cliffhanger hanging off a bigger cliffhanger</p><p>Ben soon walked back into the room, with a plate of bacon and scrambled eggs, he sat down on the floor and placed his plate on the coffee table, and started to eat away, Jone was a little angry, he just left him with the biggest cliffhanger in the world and he brushes it off with something as simple as breakfast?</p><p>Before Jone did anything stupid, Ben patted the floor with his gloved hand, telling Jone to sit down physically, so he did</p><p>After Ben finished the eggs, he continued</p><p>“<strong>Where was I?</strong>” Ben asked</p><p>“June was saying something” Jone replied. Ben snapped his finger</p><p>“<strong>Ah, right, okay so June was the only one other than me laughing, she said the following:</strong>” Ben cleared his throat as he did a perfect impression of June’s voice “<strong>You can’t control him anymore! The angry woman replied with a why’s that? She said, “I took off that necklace, he’s free now and no one can control him.</strong>” Ben said. Jone was once more engrossed in the story “<strong>Well she said something like that, that memory is a little fuzzy, but either way the woman snapped, and I did what I do best, hurt,</strong>” Ben said, suddenly something in Jone’s mind snapped</p><p>“Wait, when you say hurt do you mean-“ Jone was cut off by Ben</p><p>“<strong>Yes, I mean that the reason I’m not saying it is that I know a group of four young children eavesdropping on this conversation,</strong>” Ben said, followed by four different giggles</p><p>“How did you know?” Jone asked. He was blown back that Ben knew the four where listening</p><p>“<strong>I’ve been doing this constantly for the last couple of days, I know when someone’s listening, it’s too easy,</strong>” Ben said as he finished his bacon and headed towards the kitchen, leaving Jone once more there alone trying to process the story</p><p>Ben walked back into the room sitting on the couch, Jone still sitting on the floor, Ben sighed as he picked up Jone and set him on the couch</p><p>“<b>As</b><strong> I said, the woman snapped throwing curses at June, but when her ranting stopped, she finally realized who was behind her, me, and as I said, I hurt her, and she wasn’t going to hurt June anymore. After the event I didn’t know what to do anymore now that June did what she did, I was confused, and I didn’t know what to do,</strong>” Ben said, Jone was just sitting there listening</p><p>“<strong>I finally decided to visit this house, I didn’t want to hurt anyone or make anyone uncomfortable, but my figure said otherwise, my first visit wasn’t very successful as I scared June to a pulp, I left knowing I had scared her, and so after a bit, I visited again, she was stilled scared the second time, she thought before I was only a hallucination, the second visit confirmed that I wasn’t,</strong>” Ben said, Jone was so curious that his body refused to move until he heard the end</p><p>“<strong>I decided to stop seeing June face to face, I just played around saying I was there, I stacked some blocks, looked at their photo albums, and stole cookies from the cookie jar. After a bit I decided to see her face to face again, this time she was alone in the kitchen making something that smelt too good, I saw her in the kitchen making the food, she was looking for something, she had found it but it was too high for her to reach, and because of her injuries it was a lot harder to get what she needed.</strong>” Ben said, Jone motionless</p><p>“<strong>She fidgeted her finger around the bottle, it fell out of her reach, she couldn’t catch it, and if it hit the floor it would break making a mess. I caught it, but in return, she was scared to death, I inspected the bottle, it was chili powder. I handed her the bottle, she took it with the very tips of fingers and pulled it away as fast as possible, I laughed, and sat down watching her cook. I have to admit, I never really ate, but this smelt too good to pass up, she asked if I wanted some, to which I nodded.</strong>” Ben said, at this point, Jone would refuse to stop hearing the story, it was too good, so many twists and turns made the story a cliffhanger</p><p>“<strong>And when I took a bite, it was just as good as it smelt. I finished the bowl of chili and left, for once I was relaxed. I liked the home, it was loud sometimes but when it wasn’t it was nice and quiet, I liked both. I never knew the difference between day and night where I was, but no matter when or what, I always preferred being here then there. Whenever it was day, the house was normally empty except for June being in the kitchen, I always like to sneak up on her and give her a scare. It was always a joke, and she knew that. She just jumped every time because of how silent I was, sneaking up on her</strong>” Ben said, continuing</p><p>“<strong>But one day, she said it, she called me Ben, I never was given a name from my creator, but I knew it was Bendy, it was obvious. I was confused, was she talking to me? Either way, I questioned what she said, elongating the word, she also wasn’t aware that she called me Ben. When she explained it made sense, she said that she already had a nephew named Bendy, and she called me Ben to make it easier on herself, it was a nice name and I preferred it more than Bendy. From that day on I was Ben, I always scared June as Ben, and I always stole cookies as Ben, so I forgot my real name Bendy and made Ben my real name, it was so nice to know I could do something without being forced to or hurt someone doing it. I kept stealing cookies from the cookie jar until one day, the kids got home and there I was, hand in the jar, it was a little embarrassing to know I was caught.</strong>” Ben said</p><p>“<strong>the girls were scared of me as they hid behind June, June introduced me to them, and introduced them to me, they asked if I was going to take June away to which I said no, and just like that they trusted me. I was never trusted by anyone, they would either look at me and run, or scream while doing so, so I didn’t take it as a big deal, because I knew sooner or later something would happen</strong>” Ben said, his voice becoming a little shakier</p><p>“<strong>I’m going to stop the s-story here,</strong>” Ben said, Jone was confused until he realized that Ben stuttered</p><p>“<strong>S-Sorry for leaving you with this cliffhanger b-but I can’t,</strong>” Ben said more shakily</p><p>“I’m okay with that” Jone said, knowing Ben, he might do something if he continued, and Jone didn’t want whatever that was happen to him</p><p>Ben was taken out of process of thought to four children walking into the room with snow protection on, looks like the kids wanted to go outside</p><p>Ben slowly got up and headed towards his room, leaving his room with a sweater and scarf on once more with a cap in his hands</p><p>Bendy could tell immediately something was bothering Ben. Bendy checked the bond for any hints to what it is, instead of figuring what happened, he found that Ben’s mind was clearer but was very stressed. Bendy decided to send reassurance through the bond to try to cheer up Ben, it worked but to the slightest</p><p>Ben was happy to know Bendy was willing to help him, the reassurance of everything was okay that flooded his bond made him feel less tense, but he still knew something he hadn’t disclosed to anyone about today</p><p>Ben put on his cap and opened the front door. Before he exited the four children bolted out the house to the snow, Ben chuckled, he sat down as he supervised the four</p><p>Jones and Jone headed towards the door, as they left the house, they said goodbye to Ben and the children as they both walked home</p><p>“Did you apologize?” Jones asked</p><p>“I did” Jone replied</p><p>“Good, now let’s talk about you being grounded,” Jones said, they both walked away from the house continuing their conversation</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>yay more short chapters (okay so because of the shorter chapters ima do something stupid, ima make an archive with about 5 chapters or so that has a min. of 6k words in each chapter, but that will be slowed down by nonother than writer's block and honest to God tiredness, so yeah stay tuned!) side note: it used to say 8k words per chapter but I realized that was really stupid so instead of 40k words in less than a week ima do 30k because that's feasible lol (if I can get past the wall with writers block write in bold on it)</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>